BHS is really excited about our new exhibit, Artist & Artifact: Re|Visioning Brooklyn’s Past, presented in partnership with our neighbor BRIC Rotunda Gallery, the contemporary art space of BRIC Arts|Media|Bklyn.

Artist & Artifact installation at BRIC Rotunda Gallery with entry wall featuring comic book drawings by Andres Vera Martinez.

Over the past two years, 10 artists (7 visual artists, 2 writers, and a musician) were invited to delve into the BHS collections and create new works inspired by what they found. The new pieces are currently on view alongside objects from the BHS collection, creating a dynamic between past and present.

It has been fascinating to discover the range of themes and objects that the artists chose to focus in on. Many of the artists have looked at gaps in historical representation or looked at why certain people are memorialized and in what way.  Others were intrigued by the relevance of past events to issues we deal with today.  And some address how history lasts or disappears with the passing of time.  The resulting works include a comic book, photocards that can be arranged by viewers, paintings, photographs, sculpture, a letterpress book, an installation piece and performance video.

We hope you’ll visit the exhibit to explore these contemporary interpretations of history as well as the objects from our collections that are highlighted.

Read the Brooklyn Daily Eagle exhibition review here.

Meredith Bergmann transports her sculpture Historia Testis Temporum: Pinky, now on display in the lobby of BHS, as a contemporary answer to the portrait busts that adorn the facade of the building.

This exhibit is on view for the next few weeks only, until December 17.  Please note that BHS is open on Tuesdays during the run of the show.  Exhibit hours are: Tues – Sun, 12 – 5 (BHS); Tues – Sat, 12 – 6 (BRIC Rotunda Gallery, 33 Clinton St).

There are also opportunities to hear from the authors and artists about their work and the process of working on this project:

Author Readings with Michael Schwartz & Elizabeth Gaffney - Saturday, Nov 20, 2 – 4 p.m.

Artist Panel and Gallery Talk with Nora Herting, Andres Vera Martinez, Meredith Bergmann & Stanley Greenberg – Tuesday, Nov 30, 6 – 8 p.m.

Artist & Artifact installation at BHS with text and listening station for Elizabeth Gaffney's writing and display case of relevant objects from the BHS collection.

Listen to Elizabeth Gaffney read excerpts from her forthcoming novel The End of the Age of Wonder (Random House, 2011):

Wally, August 1945

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Antland, June 1945

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The Victory Garden, 1945

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Listen to Michael Schwartz read his short story Hey Gerry!:

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Let us know what you think!